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MOTHERWELL, Scotland, March 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Local school officials said they “would never” abide by the wishes of the Motherwell bishop, who said that to hire openly homosexual teachers to teach Catholic schoolchildren is contrary to Catholic principles.

Bishop Joseph Devine, in a Sunday Herald column, said, “Being openly gay would not at all be compatible with the charter,” referring to the Charter for Catholic Schools that outlines the Church’s philosophy and principles that guide Catholic education for the country.

Catholic Education Commission president Michael McGrath concurred, adding that hiring homosexual teachers “Would cut across the whole moral vision enshrined in the charter and it would be offering a lifestyle that is incompatible with Catholic social teaching.”

A spokesman for the local education authority, Rev Ewan Aitken, said that school officials would not go along with the bishop’s directive. “Local authorities would never countenance discriminating against a teacher because of sexual orientation,” he said, according to a BBC report.

McGrath and bishop Devine launched the Charter last June. “The charter embodies the essential elements of the Catholic Church’s philosophy of education which is based on its understanding of each human person created in the image of God, uniquely gifted for life and worthy of the utmost respect and nurturing,” Bishop Devine said then.

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